Warming-up, and turning the ensemble or wearing them out?
By Carl Bly

Warming-up the ensemble and tuning the group should be synonymous!   And for the directors who are going to stop reading right here because they “do not have time in their schedule to tune”, or “my students can’t do that” (my favorite!), please read on.   By not tuning you are making it that much harder for your students to play the music.   When their instruments are in tune it is much easier for them to hear unison melodic lines, tune the chordal structure in the composition, and find wrong notes in the printed music.

Warming-up and tuning your ensemble prior to a performance should be no different from your daily warm-up routine at the beginning of any rehearsal.   And do no more!   As an adjudicator I have heard many poor performances on stage because the director did not warm-up their ensemble properly.   Instead, what they did in the Warm-Up Room was ware the ensemble out by playing through all their music!   Performing professionals tell me, with assuredness, that there is nothing they cannot play, if they arrive early, and go through their proper warm-up procedure.

The purpose of the warm-up room should be to get everything working properly so that everyone in the ensemble feels comfortable, relaxed, and ready to go.   You can make a list of fundamentals you feel everyone should do in their warm-up procedure.   Then plan your ensemble warm-up to accomplish as many of these items as possible each rehearsal.   Here are some to consider:

• Long tones – produces good breathing, listening for a quality tone, and listening for pitch
• Tuning – unisons notes and chords – produced with a quality sound, proper breathing, and listening; chords refine listening to a whole new level and gives clarity to the ensemble.
• Attacks & Releases – produces ensemble unity, proper breathing habits, develops shaping of phrases and styles of articulation.

You will note that extreme ranges, technical passages, and fast articulations are not in this list.   Those items are techniques that are built up through daily work in method books once the fundamentals are established well.   If you think about it, the top two captions on most adjudication sheets, Tone Quality & Intonation, are address well here, as are several others.

Tuning a band is extremely important, but develop a procedure that is effective, and yet does not take up all of your time.   I have been in a 45 minute rehearsal where the director took over 20 minutes to tune the band on a single note.   When they played it was……….not good!   I have also witness the group that never tuned, did not sound bad in rehearsals, then were tuned the last day, and just sounded horrendous!   This is caused because students with good ears learn to compensate with their embouchures if their tuning slides are not in the proper place.   Now that they have pulled and pushed their slides great distances at the last minute their compensation is totally thrown off and they must learn to completely readjust.   This cannot be done in a short period of time.   Thus it is imperative that you establish a tuning procedure early in the formative stages of the ensemble.

The suggested procedure below is just one way of warming up a group properly.   It is a proven method that I used successfully for years.

The above items are the major reason that I used Leonard B. Smith’s Treasury of Scales, and 16 Chorales by J. S. Bach arranged by Mayhew Lake to warm-up my ensembles every day.   Performing the slow sections in most compositions is always the hardest thing to do.   Thus playing flowing warm-up pieces makes the students:

• Listen carefully to produce a quality sound.
• Listen carefully to play in tune with the other players on their note
• Listen carefully to play their note properly in tune for the chordal structure
• Listen carefully to bring out moving tones
• Listen to shape the musical lines and phrase together
• Listen carefully to start and stop together
• Develop sensitivity in their playing

Using chorale type exercises to warm-up your ensemble you can also develop a tuning procedure.   Understand that it is not necessary to tune everyone in your band every day.   You only need to tune certain sections each day.   Then the following day remind everyone to put their tuning slides, mouthpieces, head joints, etc. back where they were the previous day.   Soon your students will automatically make these adjustments at the beginning of each rehearsal.   You will now only have to do some fine tuning and this process will be done quite quickly.   I always knew by how quickly the group tuned how focused they were and how well they would rehearse or perform on stage.

Tune the band with a three day cycle.   When tuning, have the students play up the last three or four notes of a scale finishing on the note to be tuned.   Never tune just one note.   It is very easy for a student to just slap up the instrument on one’s face and get a note out.   When playing several notes the student must place the instrument properly on their face!  

The first day, after playing three of the above mentioned exercises, to get everything functioning properly, tune the tubas, euphoniums, trombones, trumpets and saxophone family.   These instruments are all tuned to B-flat concert.   Also it is extremely important to tune the bass notes first.   This is where the fundamental pitch for the ensemble comes from.   Always build the chordal structure from the bass note when tuning!   Once the students have established where to put their slides on the brass instruments it is important to take time one day and tune their 1st and 3 rd valve slides   After having the tubas, euphoniums, and trumpets play up to concert B-flat, have them put their first finger down and tune their first valve.   Then do likewise with the 2 nd & 3 rd valves down and tune their third slide.   .   Do likewise with the trombones F attachments.

One the second day remind everyone you turned the day before to put their tuning slides, etc back where they were the previous rehearsal.   After your warm-up procedure today tune the clarinets, bass clarinets, and French Horns.   Today the pitch center will be a little different as we are going to tune the clarinets to their open G playing up E, F# G.   And this is the best key to tune your French Horns.   They will be tuning to their open C using the same method as the brass players the previous day.   Don’t forget to tune both sides of the horn, and both sets of slides.

Then on the third day, after reminding everyone to put the tuning slides, mouthpieces, etc. back to where they were when they were tuned, warm the group up, and then tune the oboes, bassoons, flutes and piccolo to concert A (B-flat is not a good tuning note for the flutes and especially the piccolo).   These students will play the end of their A scale, F#, G#, A.

If this routine is established, over a period of time you will be surprised how quickly your students will learn to tune.   Using this procedure, prior to a concert, or Festival performance, play three chorales to warm everyone up, then tune the first group.   Then play another chorale and tune the second group.   Followed by a chorale and the final group.   Then a completing choral.   You will be amazed at how after each group is tuned the next chorale will come into focus better culminating with clarity in the end.  

There are two things that give an ensemble clarity – correct articulation style, and playing in tune.   The larger the ensemble the more important both of these items become.   Remember – “playing out of tune only adds tension to the music you do not intend to!”

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